The aim of supervised machine learning is to build a model that makes predictions based on evidence in the presence of uncertainty. A supervised learning algorithm takes a known set of input data and known responses to the data (output) and trains a model to generate reasonable predictions for the response to new data. Supervised learning uses classification and regression techniques to develop predictive models.-Classification techniques predict categorical responses, for example, whether an email is genuine or spam, or whether a tumor is cancerous or benign. Classification models classify input data into categories. Typical applications include medical imaging, image and speech recognition, and credit scoring.-Regression techniques predict continuous responses, for example, changes in temperature or fluctuations in power demand. Typical applications include electricity load forecasting and algorithmic trading. This book develops supervised learning regression techniques.Unsupervised learning finds hidden patterns or intrinsic structures in data. It is used to draw inferences from datasets consisting of input data without labeled responses. Clustering is the most common unsupervised learning technique. It is used for exploratory data analysis to find hidden patterns or groupings in data. Applications for clustering include gene sequence analysis, market research, and object recognition.
